Industry briefing - Design & Build Review | Issue 65

News in numbers

25%

The UAE plans for one quarter of its buildings to be constructed using 3D printing technology by 2030.

200+

More than 200 built environment organisations have endorsed a report by the Royal Institute of British Architects and pressure group Architects Declare, ‘Built for the Environment’ which was presented to policymakers at the COP26 climate conference.

£624m

The UK Government has announced a new £624m loan fund to support housing projects and related infrastructure, particularly focusing on redeveloping underused land.

89%

Close to nine out of ten local builders are reporting project delays because of supply chain issues or difficulty recruiting staff, according to a survey of SMEs by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

97%

Almost all builders responding to an FMB survey reported facing material price rises in Q3 2021, with 93% expecting this to continue into Q4.

£60m

The UK’s Heat and Buildings Strategy is pledging to invest £60million in heat pump innovation and offering £5,000 to households to install heat pumps.

Projects

World’s first 3D printed lab

Dubai has achieved a world record for building the world’s first 3D printed laboratory, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s Robotics and Drone laboratory at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. 3D printing in construction plays a key role in the country’s industrial strategy.

Credit: Dewa

Welcome to Niagara Falls

Construction has started on the $46m Niagara Falls State Park Welcome Center. The new 28,000ft² facility, due to open in 2023, will offer a better connection for pedestrians between the Falls and the city’s downtown business district.

Credit: GWWO

Luxury wellness for Las Vegas

Steelman Partners has unveiled the design of Spa Majestic, a wellness centre for the $850m ultra-luxury Majestic Las Vegas resort in the US. The 70,000ft² building features a distinct curvilinear shape, which is inspired by the historic La Concha Motel designed by architect Paul Williams. Construction of the resort is planned to start in 2022 and finish in 2024.

Credit: Steelman Partners

In pictures

With the help of artificial intelligence and four collaborative robots, researchers at ETH Zurich are designing and fabricating a 22.5m tall green architectural sculpture.

Researchers from ETH Zurich, working with industry partners, are creating a green architectural sculpture for the Tech Cluster Zug, a redevelopment of a former industrial site. Soaring to a height of 22.5 metres, the structure will consist of five geometrically complex wooden pods that are slightly offset from each other and supported by eight thin steel pillars.

Named Semiramis after the Babylonian queen to whom the ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon have been attributed, the sculpture is being designed and built using innovative digital methods that were developed as part of the project.

A custom machine learning algorithm, developed in collaboration with the Swiss Data Science Center, presented the researchers with sophisticated design options for the sculpture. The researchers used ETH Zurich’s Immersive Design Lab to explore the designs in three dimensions and fine-tune them together in real time.

The chosen design is currently being manufactured in the Robotic Fabrication Laboratory at ETH Zurich, using four suspended robotic arms controlled by an algorithm.